


Don't Shoot the Messenger

by acciopotatoes



Series: Shuffle Challenge 2014 [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, Shuffle Challenge, because that entire song is just so them, maybe around the end of sixth year, not Lily Evans Potter because she's not married yet, still at Hogwarts, when we were young the killers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 21:07:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1319209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acciopotatoes/pseuds/acciopotatoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shuffle Challenge, When We Were Young, The Killers. Lily is crying in a deserted corner of the castle (because of her sister) and James finds her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Shoot the Messenger

**Author's Note:**

> Shuffle Challenge, round 2! Jily! Lily gets a letter from her sister, and cries in a deserted hallway. James tries to help. This song made me think of them because of the "He doesn't look a thing like Jesus", "Can we climb this mountain/I dunno", "On the back of a hurricane/That started turning when you were young", and pretty much the whole song.

**_You sit there, in your heartache_ **

**_Waiting on some beautiful boy_ **

**_To save you from your old ways_ **

**1**

****The letter had come with Mum's. It wasn't her fault, Lily thought. She hadn't known, when she put Petunia's letter into the same envelope, what the second letter had contained.

_....I hope you're happy, playing magic tricks on each other over there....I have been accomplishing worthwhile things back in the real world....I got a promotion at work, although I won't be needing to work much longer, now that I'm engaged to Vernon....His family is normal, with a hard work ethic and a successful business in drilling...._

Lily had left the Great Hall rather abruptly, and wandered about the halls until she found this little spot, the dusty floors and windows a sign of its hardly ever being used. Now, she was sitting against the stone wall, wondering why her sister hated her so much. Jealousy? No, that wasn't enough. It had to be something else. 

_Mother and I have been planning the wedding for a month now....I hope you are aware that you are only being invited because Mother insisted....But you won't be in the wedding party, just a guest....That is, if you can be bothered to come out of your little fantasy world long enough to act like a real human being...._

She didn't even want to go, with Petunia's evident distaste for her, but her mother wouldn't understand that. Lily's mum knew that her two daughters didn't get along, but she would definitely put her foot down for Lily to attend. 

_Vernon doesn't know about your freakish "talents" and I hope he never will....Why can't you just grow up and give up this stupid dream of yours....What about when you want a real job? No one will recognize magic school as an education, you'll never be hired....Keep your "skills" a secret from my family....I've told them that you go to a boarding school for miscreatants....Mother wasn't too happy about that, but what can she do now that it's been said...._

"Evans?"

Lily straightened up and shoved the crumpled up letter underneath her. She did her best to quickly fix her hair and wipe her eyes before looking up and seeing that it was James Potter. 

A heavy sigh filled the air before she spoke. "Potter. I'm really not in the mood to put up with you right now-"

"Why are you crying?" He blurted out. 

"W-What?"

"You were crying. And you had a parchment. Did someone write you or something? Alice said that she saw you leave after you opened your mail, and you didn't seen very okay, so I figured - I figured I would see if you were. Okay, I mean. I figured I would see if you were okay." He ran a hand through his hair nervously, and shoved the other hand in his pocket. 

"Er, y-yeah. I'm fine. But .... why would you want to know if I was okay? I mean, why would you want to know enough to find me?"

He looked like he didn't know what to say. "I - I just. I thought, if you were upset, you might want to - talk?"

This entire situation was beyond awkward. 

"I got a letter. I don't like it. There. Is that all you need?" Lily put on her best indifferent tone. 

"Who was it from?"

"How is that your business?"

"I get letters I don't like from my cousin. She's a bitch, actually. And Padfoot gets letters he doesn't like from pretty much every member of his family." He'd sat down next to her now, not too close. A few feet away, along the wall. 

Lily didn't say anything, and he continued. 

"My cousin? She sends me letters about how I should leave my family for the blood-purity path. Whenever I say no, she gets pissy, but after awhile, she'll always try again. I've just stopped replying. Sirius, you can imagine the kind of letters he gets from his mother. Howlers. Remember that one he got right after he was sorted into Gryffindor?"

Lily nodded. 

"He gets more like that, only he takes them earlier, before breakfast, out in the middle of the forest. That way, it isn't as attention-grabbing."

"Oh." Then, because she felt like she had to say something, "The Forbidden Forest?"

James nodded. 

"Oh."

Then, she started talking. 

"It's my sister. We - we were really close when we were kids, but after....after the whole 'Your sister is a witch, let's send her off to Hogwarts' thing, she got kind of distant. She practically hates me now, and she calls me a freak and a selfish, head-in-the-clouds sister who turned into something monstrous, and she acts like I'm not connected with reality, and she always makes these comments about how I should just give it up and start living a normal life again, and she tells her friends the awfullest things about me - and normally I wouldn't care, but she's my sister, and we used to be best friends...."

She told him the whole story, in the dusty hallway, holding a crumpled-up letter, fresh tears running down her cheeks, where he'd followed her because he was worried if she was okay or not. 

Somehow, this felt different. 

It felt like he wasn't there to ask her out, or flirt with her, or make snide comments about Severus - not that he would have been able to, since she and Sev had stopped talking. She told him that, too; she could tell that he hadn't quite understood why Lily and Snape had ever been friends. 

So she explained to him that after she had started making flowers bloom when she walked past and swinging way too high but being perfectly fine when she landed, that she'd been an outcast, too. She and Severus had been outcasts, the girl who could make unexplainable things happen and the boy with dirty clothes and greasy hair. But he'd explained the unexplained to her, told her about magic and Hogwarts and assured her that blood status didn't matter....until that day at the lake. 

After, when they had both gone their separate ways for the day, she felt better, and he felt like he'd done something good. 

And maybe they'd both gotten closer to the end of the road. Maybe, just maybe, they understood each other a little better. 

* * *

 

I kind of have this headcanon that Lily was evetually incorporated into the bridal party at Petunia's wedding, but that she didn't like it and got stuck wearing a dress that clashed horridly with her red hair, and that she brought James with her to the wedding, and he made jokes and she stopped thinking about the awful dress and the glares her sister was sending her and the strange reactions the guests got whenever James said something that didn't quite translate too well for Muggles.


End file.
